1. "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of passionate feelings" - William Wordsworth
1.1. Polarity of Meaning in Language
2. Temporality
2.1. Modernity
2.1.1. Classic Scene – William Carlos Williams
2.1.1.1. Critique of technological developments that has political allusions through the metaphors used to describe the scene
2.2. Time, Place, Identity Reality
2.2.1. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
2.2.1.1. Time and place frame always known - effect: cause and effect (cohesive structure), and rooted in individual experience
2.2.2. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
2.2.2.1. Not as strict in terms of time frame (although it is in place)
2.2.3. Digging – Seamus Heaney
2.2.3.1. Deals with history and tradition being carried onto the new generation, although in a different form, the father's and grandfather's digging will be carried down by the author's digging with his pen, this digging in terms of literature
2.3. Eternality
2.3.1. Ode on a Grecian Urn – John Keats
2.3.1.1. The frozen, silent urn expresses a timeless meaning. Haunted by the idea that frozen meanings that are supposed to transcend death & morality are instead being captured by an urn and robbed of fulfillment and life's joys
2.3.2. The Tempest - Shakespeare
2.3.2.1. {250} idea of plays + history = manipulation -> destiny depends on what meaning you place on the past.
2.3.2.1.1. {2.1.256} "past is prologue"
2.3.3. Mortal vs. Immortal/Eternal
2.3.3.1. Petrarch's Sonnet vs. Shakespeare's Sonnet
2.3.3.1.1. Parentheses used create an immediate temporality (distinct change between past/present tense)
2.3.3.1.2. Petrarch's heavenly glowing hair vs. Shakespeare's thick black cords
2.3.3.2. A Valediction Forbidding Mourning – John Donne
2.3.3.2.1. "Dull sublunary lovers' love" contrasted with a superior one that can stretch over the universe (scale metaphor)
3. Gender
3.1. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
3.1.1. Although Jane seems to be a category crisis in this area as well, she is met with less success because she ends up as a happy little wife, which conforms to the gender spheres
3.1.2. Mr. Rochester = class = power over Jane = male power over female
3.2. My Last Duchess – Robert Browning
3.2.1. The "male gaze"
3.2.2. Male power over women (through speech)
3.2.3. I am a man, you are a woman' the fact that his class does not repress her --> uses gender
4. Class
4.1. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
4.1.1. Jane as category crisis
4.1.2. Jane seemingly rises through the classes throughout the novel
4.1.3. Although Bertha Mason has the class and status to marry Mr. Rochester, she is not good enough because of her race.
4.2. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
4.2.1. Class ideology as a form of legitimizing RC's higher standing in life
4.3. My Last Duchess – Robert Browning
4.3.1. Not a form of a legitimization for admiration/recognition as the Duchess proved to the confused Duke.
4.4. The Tempest - Shakespeare
4.4.1. Different classes (viz. king-servant relationships) are defined by their ability to use language (particularly wordplay) to define meanings and through that, lead the conversation.
5. Race
5.1. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
5.1.1. Actual race is form of legitimization for R. to dissociate Bertha as his wife.
5.1.2. Race ideology, and thus language, is used to legitimize Jane, his lower classed governess, to marry him by distinguishing her from the other race (this was the first time they were going to get married and R. was buying Jane expensive stuff).
5.2. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
5.2.1. Legitimization for inhumane treatment of other races, ie: selling Xury.
5.2.1.1. Slavery
5.2.1.2. Names (language)
5.3. The Tempest - Shakespeare
5.3.1. Legitimization for making Caliban a slave, etc.
6. Individuality/Personal-Impersonal
6.1. Nationalistic
6.1.1. Digging – Seamus Heaney
6.1.1.1. Deep roots (tradition) in potato farming. But now Heaney seems to have moved on from his past ancestors. in reality, he's saying that it actually is much the same concept—just that his shovel happens to be a pen instead
6.1.2. From the Frontier of Writing – Seamus Heaney
6.1.2.1. Has to do with crossing borders and interrogation and the feeling of "guarded unconcerned acceleration" that comes with it
6.2. My Last Duchess – Robert Browning
6.2.1. In this poem,
6.3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
6.3.1. Young Jane argues for the rights of the individual, regardless whether one is a male or female, to love freely, learn freely, experience and travel freely, and speak freely. However, Old Jane learns to curb Young Jane's "passion," and legitimizes those that had wronged Young Jane using class and race ideology. In the end, Jane does not emerge as an individual, but as a happy, submissive wife.
6.4. The Tempest - Shakespeare
7. Language
7.1. Power
7.1.1. Classic Scene – William Carlos Williams
7.1.1.1. Political Power: Oppression of superiors over the laity
7.1.2. My Last Duchess - Robert Browning
7.1.2.1. The duke tries to assume power over his last duchess by taking over who gets to see the painting of her smile. He legitimizes this through his social and class position as her husband (the man), and as one who has over 900 years of powerful lineage. His attempt works in the sense that he gets to tell her story and, in doing so, lets him present as well as repress certain things. At the same time, his failure at language make his "power" disappear like thin air. From another point of view, it isn't a weakness in language that he displays - although he claims to be so, the strict rhyme scheme is a silent indicator of his controlling power.
7.1.3. The Tempest - Shakespeare
7.1.3.1. Prospero: the playwright, control over everything, except that Prospero later loses control, but regains it when he turns and faces the audience
7.1.3.2. {3.1.37} Ferdinand says that his bondage is a form of freedom because he gets to be with Miranda. slavery=freedom. "meaning" is only what you make of situations
7.1.3.3. {3.2.140} Caliban: meditation on "art"/"theatre"--> relationship of art to domination/slavery? plays give us an illusion of happiness.
7.1.3.4. {2.1.152} Gonzalo: If I were king, "letters should not be known" - power-language relationship
7.2. Writing
7.2.1. Digging – Seamus Heaney
7.2.1.1. The poet uses writing as a form of digging, which then carries down tradition. However, he also breaks tradition because he is not necessarily digging in the same manner as previous generations
7.2.1.2. Writing preserves tradition
7.2.2. From the Frontier of Writing – Seamus Heaney
7.2.2.1. Writing is a form of freedom to express despite the physical oppression that is occurring
7.2.3. Since Feeling is First – E. E. Cummings
7.2.3.1. While writing, Cummings attempts to break the conventions of writing in order to express feeling/emotion/love
7.2.4. Turn of the Screw - Henry James (writable/readable text)
7.2.4.1. James writes in a different form of the novel that does not follow the usual types of closures, and thus, TotS becomes a writable, not readable, text.
7.3. Meaning
7.3.1. Metaphor
7.3.1.1. A Valediction Forbidding Mourning – John Donne
7.3.1.1.1. Overarching metaphor: scale (universe, earth, & individual). Small metaphor: compass.
7.3.1.2. Oread – H. D.
7.3.1.2.1. Disrupted metaphor - cannot tell between primary and subsidiary object
7.3.1.3. Silence – e. e. Cummings
7.3.1.3.1. "silence//is/a/looking/bird" - unusual use of metaphor (birds usually = noisy). Sig = effect is one that causes the reader to pause at its usage, which is a form of silence in itself
7.3.1.4. The Tempest - Shakespeare
7.3.1.4.1. {2.1.297} Sleep is a metaphor for death, productive, {2.1.265} idle, lack of ambition
7.3.1.5. From the Frontier of Writing - Seamus Heaney
7.3.1.5.1. Water metaphor - allusion to freedom
7.3.2. Interpretation
7.3.2.1. Ode on a Grecian Urn – John Keats
7.3.2.1.1. Silence: in the silence of the urn, represents non-silence of a higher/authoritative one because it is silent (hierarchy of the senses)
7.3.2.1.2. "Sylvan historian" - if you interpret it as a historian who is sylvan, then it becomes mythical
7.3.2.2. Turn of the Screw - Henry James
7.3.2.2.1. Because it is a writable text and does not have the conventional closure, TotS defies interpretation
7.3.2.3. Silence
7.3.2.3.1. Ode on a Grecian Urn - John Keats
7.3.2.3.2. My Last Duchess - Robert Browning
7.3.2.3.3. Oread – H. D.
7.3.2.3.4. Silence - e. e. cummings
7.3.2.3.5. Turn of the Screw - Henry James
7.3.2.4. Oread - H.D.
7.3.2.4.1. Defies interpretation due to the disruption of the metaphor
7.3.2.5. Musee des Beaux Arts - W. H. Auden
7.3.2.5.1. Create meaning in the insignificant portions of a story
7.4. Civilization/Savagery
7.4.1. The Tempest - Shakespeare
7.4.1.1. Speech
7.4.1.1.1. {3.2.140} Caliban showing mastery of speaking and thus showing his softness, a sensitive side.
7.4.1.1.2. Yet at the same time, Caliban also curses his ability to speak because it allowed him the capability of cursing
7.4.1.1.3. {1.2.354} Miranda to Caliban: "I taught you language" - language=civilization
7.4.1.1.4. Stephano: "how can he speak my lang"
7.4.1.1.5. {1.1} in all the craziness of the tempest, the power roles between the boatswain and Alonso and Gonzalo switch
7.4.2. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
7.4.2.1. Writing
7.4.2.1.1. Form of demonstrating Crusoe's literacy which is only found in civilization
7.4.2.1.2. Keeping sane -> sanity=civilzedness?
7.4.2.2. Religion
7.4.2.2.1. Teaches Friday the religion of God
7.4.2.2.2. Legitimizes the cause and effect form of the novel that Watt talks about
7.5. "Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive." - Roland Barthes
8. Art
8.1. Musee des Beaux Arts – W. H. Auden
8.1.1. shows the insignificant side to the significant story --> the truth about human experience
8.1.2. gives the painting meaning through speculation and analysis (doesn't the painting already have meaning by itself?)
8.2. My Last Duchess – Robert Browning
8.2.1. by creating a representation of someone, you repress/contain/reduce them. Plus, the Duke's lack of power when the Duchess was alive makes his power over her more obvious through his strict control over her painting
8.2.2. competing gazes --> makes sense that the Duke wants to keep her behind a curtain (aka under his "power")
8.2.3. painting=symbol of the fact that he couldn't control her when she was alive. it's also literally another man's perspective of his duchess (Frà Pandolf)
8.3. Ode on a Grecian Urn – John Keats
8.3.1. The things not depicted through the art of the urn are still somehow created by the urn by their absence. The art perpetuates the theme of silence but there is nobody to tell
9. Love
9.1. The Tempest - Shakespeare
9.1.1. Love at first sight is promoted - Ferdinand and Miranda
9.1.2. An illegitimate love created by the workings of Prospero lasted even through the unveiling of Prospero's deeds and end up true
9.1.3. it is by having access to this love that Ferdinand considers his enslavement a form of "freedom"
9.2. Petrarch's Sonnet
9.2.1. Love is not a flame, but something that fuels the flame—"tinder". If love is tinder, it can be used up and will burn out over time. it can be 'consumed'.
9.3. Shakespeare Sonnet
9.3.1. Criticizes the overuse of "heavenly" metaphors for mere love interests—conceptions of lover as personal; "real"
9.4. A Valediction Forbidding Mourning – John Donne
9.4.1. Divides into the dichotomous category of "dull sublunary lovers' love" and "a love so refined"
9.4.1.1. Genuine love = large scale (see metaphor section on this), while superficial love = small scale
9.5. Ode on a Grecian Urn – John Keats
9.5.1. The gratification of love is not in the contact of two lovers, but the moments that lead up to it
9.6. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë
9.6.1. Love is only legitimate if there is no race difference between two people, whereas class difference is not as big of an issue
9.7. Turn of the Screw - Henry James
9.7.1. Love cannot transcend class - Quint and Jessel both died, and Quint was too free. Also, the governess never gets to be with the master, as in Jane Eyre